Note from me: This is to further your education, so that informed, you may be able to form your conscience. [Uhm. What are you there as priests for? Aren't you the one's to tell us what is right and wrong and then we decide and we know the consequences if we do not do what is right, right? Isn't that the lessons we learned in school cathechism?] Doing so, you will be able to make your own decision on the matter. It is good that you get different opinions and perspectives. I have worked with Fr. Carroll SJ in Payatas and I can attest to his holiness, sincerity and credibility. [Wow! That really sets the tone. His intro of the article and his Welcome Remarks for the Keynote Speaker. As if I did not work there at Payatas too. Ha!]

***

AS I watched Christ’s faithful gather symbolically in the Upper Room on Holy Thursday, around Calvary’s cross on Good Friday, and at the empty tomb on Easter Sunday, a wave of joy flowed over me. Swept up like a chip of wood on the surface of a boiling wave by the power of the community singing, I recalled the unity in faith and hope of the millions who gathered 25 years ago at Edsa. But still there was an undercurrent of sadness, sadness due to the realization that the official Church no longer stands with a united people but with one part of a nation divided; and that the struggle is carried on, no longer in the respectful manner of the crowds at Edsa, but in an atmosphere of personal animosity and demonizing. [Now here is where his argument falters. He twisted the facts of history. Remember that it was the Church, through the CBCP that condemned the massive cheating at the 1986 Snap Presidential Elections. It was the Church, through Manila Archbishop Jaime Cardinal Sin, who rallied the people to go to Edsa. It is the Church, through her brave and faithful bishops, who shouts that what is happening with the RH Bill is driving a wedge amongst Catholics.]

The sadness is made deeper by the sense that in the debate over the RH bill, the Church seems to have backed itself into a no-win situation. [What win situation are we talking about here? Your talking about contraceptives and abortifacients! Life will never win with that.] If the bill passes over the total opposition of the hierarchy, there will be gloating in some quarters and a sense of “Who’s afraid of the big bad Church?” If it is defeated by the opposition of the Church, I fear a powerful backlash at the Church’s “interference in politics” and “reliance on political power rather than moral suasion”—the beginnings of an anti-clericalism such as has overwhelmed formerly Catholic bastions such as Spain and Ireland. [So....we are more concerned with the PR ramifications of standing up to what the Magisterium teaches us?]

With all due respect for the position of the Philippine bishops, I do not see that total opposition to the bill necessary, once one gets past the polemics. First of all, the bill does not legalize contraceptives; they are already legal and may be purchased in any drugstore. What the bill proposes to do—rightly or wrongly—is to subsidize the cost of contraception as well as natural family planning to the poor. [Which the Church still opposes since contraceptives is a moral evil that MUST NOT BE funded by tax payers' money!] Neither does the bill legalize abortion; on the contrary it reaffirms the constitutional prohibition. [Obviously, he did not read the Bill. Most contraceptives are abortifacients which the manufacturers of these contraceptives admit in their label packaging.] It is highly probable in fact that if contraceptives become more available to the poor, the scandalous number of illegal abortions performed annually will be dramatically reduced. [There you have it folks. This Catholic priest sees contraception, even though it has been condemned by Humane Vitae, as the solution to end abortion. Those contraceptives themselves induce abortion! And what if the contraceptive fails, what do you do with the unborn baby? Have you ever asked why those women who had "unsafe abortions" decided to have one? Because the contraceptive failed! Why do I know this? I worked where you are working Fr. Caroll. You might not know me but I know you.]

On the tricky scientific question whether the IUD and some contraceptive pills may prevent the implantation of a fertilized ovum in the mother’s womb and so destroy a human life, the current draft of the bill passes the responsibility to the Food and Drug Administration, which should ban any such “contraceptives” from drugstores throughout the country. [Just read the frickin product label and other scientific studies. Have you tried Filipinos for Life? Or you just pretend to turn a blind eye? He is agreeing to the Bill's position that we let loose these abortifacients first, even if they have been proven that these are, and let the FDA of the Philippines test them later. How many babies have been aborted by then, huh?]

On the matter of sex education in the schools, the same draft allows parents to “opt out” for their children, i.e. to have them exempted from such classes. This is an improvement, although it would seem better to allow religious schools to develop their own programs. It may be still possible to negotiate for this. There is a graded set of modules on sex and population education already available, prepared by teachers of Catholic schools under the leadership of the Office of Population Studies Foundation of the University of San Carlos, and bearing the imprimatur of Ricardo Cardinal Vidal. [Honestly, this is a good point. I don't trust that fat blob named Lagay-man to design this for my children.]

Other improvements may still be possible. One might be to strengthen the “conscience clauses” protecting health workers and teachers whose religious values conflict with certain aspects of the bill. Another could be representation of religious bodies on an oversight committee to make sure that freedom of conscience is fully respected in the field.

A sticking point for many is that the bill would subsidize the distribution of contraceptives to the poor. The Catholic Church, while recognizing the fundamental moral difference between contraception and abortion, still insists that the former is wrong. [Do you believe in this Fr. John?] It debases the most sacred act which a husband and wife can perform: cooperation with the Creator in bringing into existence a new human person destined for eternity with God. Here it would seem more consistent for the Church to initiate a vigorous program of family life and natural family planning education for its people, helping them to form their consciences and make responsible decisions on this matter, rather than trying by political means to keep them away from “temptation.” [He does not want the Church to speak out in the public square. How sooooo European!]

Which brings up what to me seems to be the most important issue here, namely, the family and family values. The charge is made that the RH bill will destroy the Filipino family. On the basis of more than 25 years of pastoral and social work in Payatas, and some seven years sponsoring natural family planning programs, I can say that the family is already at great risk—and not because of contraceptives. [Here comes the CV!]

While the dedication of many young people—our scholars and former scholars—to helping their families, and the sacrifices that they are willing to make, are sometimes overwhelming, these are often one-parent families abandoned by the fathers who have gone on to father second and even third families. Or no-parent families abandoned by both father and mother and being raised by grandparents. Moreover, one main reason why only some 20 percent of the women who take our seminars on natural family planning actually practice it is precisely the unwillingness of the husbands to cooperate. [And adding contraceptives to the list won't worsen the situation? Yup. Great one Father!]

Our family-life seminars [Uhm. Been to one. Rubbish.] seem to be much appreciated. If only the effort and resources being now invested in opposition to the RH bill were being used for serious family-life education and family support services, [Do I hear an implicit promotion of the Ateneo's program here? Huh? Hmmmmmm......?] there might be little reason to oppose the bill. And our Holy Week services might be true celebrations of unity, mutual respect and love.

***

Priests and bishops are ordained to dispense the graces of the Almighty through the sacraments. And they are also ordained in order to preserve us in the Faith, instruct and guide us, and to keep us within the fold.

That is the reason why bishops carry a shepherd's crook, to keep the wayward within the fold and to protect the sheep from the attacks of the wolves.

If you have priests like the Jesuits of the Ateneo giving you a load of grey-area crap, with "common ground" dialogue and letting you informed and let you decide on your own...

Imagine Felix Manalo jumping for joy in the fires of hell for seeing Catholics being confused from within by their own shepherds.

Dear Ateneo Fathers, all we want is you to tell us what to do? Maybe you can have an idea of what we want when you recall seeing one of these bracelets.

On second thought....

WE WILL JUST READ HUMANAE VITAE, EVANGELIUM VITAE AND THE CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

I'd even trust Pro-Life Philippines and Filipinos for Life on this issue. We'd rather listen to the Holy Father and the bishops than you, because quite frankly, you are neither pope nor bishop. I don't owe you my allegiance